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The Detective’s Album

The Detective’s Album was the long-running detective series of Australia’s first female crime-fiction writer, Mary Fortune.

Narrated by the fictional detective Mark Sinclair, the series begins with his recollections as he looks back through his album of mugshots from an eventful police career.

This volume reproduces the first ten episodes of the series, as originally published in the Australian Journal In 1868-69. It contains the titles:
1. The Red Room
2. The Fratricide
3. The Poisoner
4. Simple Sam
5. Fire
6. The Ruby Ring
7. The Dead Man’s Beat
8. The Geneva Watch
9. Lost Ella
10. Love

Mary Fortune (c. 1833-1910?) migrated from Canada to the Australian goldfields in 1855. She published her first detective stories in the Australian Journal in 1865, using the pseudonyms of 'Waif Wander' and 'W. W.'. In all, she wrote over 500 detective stories over 40 years, most featuring Detective Mark Sinclair. Her one book, The Detective's Album (1871), is the first known collection of detective fiction stories by a woman. She died an alcoholic, the date and place still unknown - somehow fitting for this pioneering woman of mystery.